A Rodeo, 5 Swags and The Worst Bushfires In 40 Years

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We have covered more than 4,700 kms since I last wrote, driving through some of Australia’s vast, dry terrain in temperatures generally exceeding 35 degrees (and the nights often don’t feel much cooler!)! The car drives have been long, at times a bit challenging, but, as a reward, we find ourselves today - by default, but more about that later - at a beautiful oasis, complete with pool and electricity (which means aircon), and have decided not to step into our car for two days - bliss. Having said that, the country we have been travelling through has been very interesting, with bright red earth in many parts; a landscape which, at first glance, looks bleak, but on closer inspection is interspersed with brightly coloured plants, trees with bark that is almost iridescent and variously textured, and, flying in and out of them, raucous, bright birds. We have also been passing through lots of cattle country, and these stretches can be a bit mind-numbing - flat and yellow as far as the eyes can see - a tribute I guess to overgrazing and no rain. But what has been constant is the emptiness. The roads are long, and on some stretches we see perhaps only one or two other cars - and mostly heading in the other direction (so many people tell us we are crazy to be travelling north west at this time of the year, due to the extreme heat).

But I am getting ahead of myself. First, let me tell you about our first rodeo. We did do the 600km+ detour to Brunette Downs, and there discovered why we could not locate it on our GPS; Brunette Downs, in fact, is not a town, but one of Australia’s largest cattle stations, covering more than 12,000 sq.km, running more than 72,000 head of cattle. If you are interested, there is a good article on the station at www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/brunette-downs-kingdom-of-cattle.htm. Anyway, we arrived the day before the rodeo was to start, and we were the only out-of-towners. We were invited to stay for free which was great (but no electricity). We watched trailer loads of horses arriving, as well as truck loads of cows, and later the bulls and broncos. The following day dawned hot and dusty, and at 10am the action began. The days belonged to the campdrafting side of things (mounted cowboys/girls testing their horse-handling skills by cutting a cow (or beast as they are referred to in these parts) from the herd and guiding (drafting) it around two posts and then through a gate). Once I understood what was going on, I really enjoyed watching it, and could appreciate the skills of the rider (and, in many cases, of the horse as well). Interestingly, the women seemed to excel at this event, and rode their horses generally with more style, more grit, and more speed than most of the cowboys (though there were some excellent men as well). There was even a section for children, which I thought was very impressive. There was one girl, she could not have been more than 9 or 10, sitting on a massive horse, and she did a good job cutting out a beast from within the corral, but once the gate was opened, the horse bolted, and she had no control of it (check out the photos). Impressively, she clung on, until a cowboy was able to ride alongside her and hoist her off the horse. She was very shaken, and - understandably - crying as she raced out of the arena. Imagine my surprise when, about 20 minutes later, I saw her compete again!

It was a very hot day, and very, very dusty. Oliver, William and Quinton ended up hibernating in the relative coolness of the caravan for most of the afternoon, eagerly anticipating the rodeo that was happening that evening. Now that was fun. And this is where the men dominated - in fact, there was only one female competitor. The boys laughed at the steer wrestling, watched in awe at the bull riding, but I think what surprised us all was the saddle bronc riding. Eight seconds was all the cowboys had to stay on the horse for, but few were able to make it. These broncs bucked and kicked and were quite intimidating. In fact, the first cowboy out lasted not even two seconds, and had to be stretchered out, as did about four guys subsequently (one in fact was airlifted to Darwin hospital during the night - hectic stuff, better left to those with more brawn than brain I guess…) The atmosphere was festive, with music blaring, and everybody dressed to the nines. Cars and utes (bakkies) had been backed up around the arena, tupperwares brimming with food and eskies (cooler boxes) overflowing with beer resting in the open boots, and there were lots of cowboy hats. While most of the guys competing in the rodeo would be working on the Brunette Downs property, those competing in the actual campdraft came from isolated stations as far as 500km away, so this was quite the social occasion.

As the heat and dust was getting to us, we decided to continue our trek west the following day. Our next destination was Alice Springs, and Uluru. A friend of Paul’s, Tara Turkington, gave us the contact details of her uncle Will MacGregor, and his wife Margo, who live in Alice Springs. They invited us to stay, and what a lovely couple. Will set up BushMob, an organisation which runs a residential programme for young people aged 12 to 24 years of age, wanting to get their lives back on track. Going into nature, and working with horses, play an integral role in Will’s programme. If you are interested in reading more, check out www.bushmob.com.au/Bushmob.com.au. Will also gave us the opportunity to try out swagging, letting us borrow Bushmob’s swags and fly tents for our trip to Uluru. We set off very, very excited. We arrived and set up our little swag city, and then rushed off to watch the sun set over Uluru. Uluru is such an Australian icon, we wondered whether it would live up to expectations. Well, it did, I think precisely because it is so well known. Paul and I had had big debates whether we would climb the rock, as we were both very keen, but chatting to the MacGregors helped sway us not to (they explained that Aborigines don’t believe in enforcing rules, but rather, letting adults know what is right and wrong, and then letting them be responsible for their own decisions. At Uluru there are signs asking people to please respect their culture and not to climb the monolith). On arrival, we both admitted that it did look a little bit inviting, but fortunately the final decision was taken out of our hands as it was closed due to extreme heat!

That night, we excitedly climbed into our swags, only to hear the roll of thunder. Yes, naturally we were camping on the first night it rains in Alice! Fortunately, though it rained constantly during the night, the rain was not too heavy, and the swags withheld the water (and, we had also brought one of our own tents just in case, and I, William and Quinton ended up sleeping in there). I did manage to wake up in time to watch the sun rise over Uluru, but a hazy sky meant I did not see the famous colour changes, but it was still magnificent. I arrived back at camp (you can’t bush camp around Uluru but have to stay at this massive caravan park), and we packed up in anticipation of two nights swagging in the bush - alone under the stars - in Kings Canyon. On our way, we stopped at the Olgas and did a lovely (and very hot) three hour hike through the Valley Of The Winds.

Then we headed to the West MacDonnell ranges, only to be thwarted by closed roads, closed because, we later found out, the worst fires in 40 years were raging through central Australia. By the time we realised we could not get into the ranges (we had tried all possible routes) we had travelled too far to go back to Uluru (which was a real shame, as our time there had been very short) so we had to head back to Alice Springs. So, in the space of 48 hours, we drove nearly 1,000kms! We arrived back at the MacGregors late that evening, and they suggested we try a camp spot called John Hayes in the East MacDonnell ranges, only an hour away, and hopefully not close to any fires. Off we went again the next day, and we ended up having a lovely evening in the swags. The skies were clear, the moon new, and we were able to lie back and look at the stars from our bed. It was so wonderful in fact, that we promptly went and bought our very own swags as soon as we headed back into Alice Springs. Our swags open up a whole new world in travelling options for these last few months, and we plan to swag across the Gibb River Road (which is a relief to me, as I was worried how Cazza would handle the corrugated road, which, we have heard, has signalled the end to many other caravans, or at least caused them to spend some time in the workshop).

And this brings us to where we are today, at Katherine Gorge. As our time in Alice had been cut short due to the fires, we decided to leave earlier, and instead of rushing up Stuart Highway to make it to Darwin in time for Paul to catch his flight on Friday, we took our time. We stopped at Daly Water’s pub for Paul’s birthday, excited at the prospect of celebrating his birthday with a cold stubby listening to live music. But, despite signs everywhere promising ‘musiceverynitemate’, this night of all nights there was no live music! As it was an eccentric pub, we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. It also had a small pool, a welcome relief in this 36degree+ heat, and Quinton has rediscovered his ability to swim. Very cute to watch. We arrived at Katherine Gorge thinking to spend one, maybe two nights here, but the camp site is so wonderful (there is a big pool here with water falls and jet streams, and we are surrounded by Agile Wallabies which are wonderful to observe) we decided to stay here for three nights, as we all felt we needed a much-needed break from the car. This morning we went on a cruise up three of the 13 gorges, and swam in a crocodile-free stretch of the river. Heaven!

But all good things must come to an end, and tomorrow we head to Darwin. A lady we met at the rodeo (the only other out-of-towner) invited us to park our caravan on her property where she lives with her daughter (she and Quinton got on very well) and her horses and dogs. As she also has a pool, it was an offer we could not refuse. We are a bit worried about the heat - at Brunette Downs we were sweltering, but Patrina was sleeping in a small trailer with her daughter Summer, with no windows for ventilation, and they needed to use woollen blankets to keep themselves warm!!! My mother will be joining us next week for a few days as well while Paul is in New Zealand.

I forgot to mention that on our way to Alice Springs we stopped at Devils Marbles for a night. We were surrounded by at least a hundred huge, randomly scattered round red-coloured boulders, one of the larger of which the boys hiked up in the evening so that Paul could play his didgeridoo under the stars. It was here that we also saw our first dingo, in time to see it hunt a rock wallaby (which fortunately escaped, but I did feel a bit for the dingo as it looked very scrawny).

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Comments

[Megann]

Alexa, your photographs are just too beautiful and I so enjoy reading about your adventure. Are you going to be able to tear yourself away from it when the time comes? I am not so sure I could if I were you. You are so lucky to be spending such quality time with your four boys! Please say hi to Paul for me and tell him to have a great time in NZ. He may bump into Rod - he has decided that he has to go too!